- Windows Vista will pop up another screen in order to notify that the Windows Defender has been disabled. 9 To ensure that Windows Defender has been completely disabled, click the ‘Start’ button and type ‘services.msc’ without the quote marks in the Windows search bar and press ‘Enter’.
- Jun 03, 2007 Vista Guru. When I select a program that in the Software Explorer area of Windows Defender that I want to remove, the Remove and Disable.
- Select Windows Defender and in the right panel and double click the setting “Turn off Windows Defender” “Turn off Windows Defender” should be set to Enable if you can’t run Windows Defender. You want to disable this option. You will need local administrative rights to make this change; You should be able to run Windows Defender after.
- Turn Off Windows Defender Vista Home Premium
- Turn Off Windows Defender Vista
- How To Disable Windows Defender In Vista
- How To Disable Windows Defender In Vista
- Disable Windows Defender 8.1
Windows Defender: If you have AVG, McAfee, Norton, Microsoft Security Essentials, etc installed, they will either have a conflict with Windows Defender, or disable it. Microsoft Security Essentials has its own built-in version of Defender and should automatically disable Vista's version of Windows Defender. If it does not say that, Right click on Windows Defender click Properties on the new window, make the necessary changes as mentioned above click OK when done. Let me repeat one more time: Windows Defender cannot be uninstalled. It comes with the system, it lives and dies with the system.
Since Windows Vista, your operating system comes with an anti spyware program called Windows Defender. It’s a small piece of software that runs in the background to help protect your computer from various pieces of spyware and malicious software. Defender has been around since 2006 and although not a fully featured security application, it does at least offer some protection for Windows Vista and 7 out-of-the-box. In Windows 8, Microsoft went a step further basically renaming Microsoft Security Essentials to Defender, and it’s now an antivirus package as opposed to just small resident anti spyware tool.
The problem with all Defender versions in Windows Vista and above is it’s integrated into the operating system and installs by default with no visible or hidden option to uninstall. Many people are looking for ways to disable, uninstall or remove it from their system as they prefer to use other software. Windows XP users at least have the luxury of choosing whether they want to download and install Defender in the first place as it’s a separate package, and then have the option to uninstall again through Add or Remove Programs.
Luckily most of the time when you install a new anti spyware program or antivirus application that includes anti spyware, it should be smart enough to disable Windows Defender as your new software takes care of it from now on. However, if Defender is still running or causing other issues, you need to know how to turn it off manually or in more extreme cases remove it from the system completely. Here we show you how to do both.
Disabling Defender in Windows Vista and 7
Defender in Windows Vista is slightly more integrated into the operating system as opposed to Windows 7 with added options for protecting Internet Explorer, startup items and services/drivers etc. It also includes a tray icon for the program which is started with Windows that needs to be removed. There are two easy ways to disable Defender in Windows 7 and Vista:
Method #1
1. Click Start and type services.msc into the search box, or go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Services.
2. Look for “Windows Defender” in the services list and double click on it to bring up the Properties window.
3. Click the Stop button to stop the Windows Defender service and then click on the Startup type drop down menu and select Disabled. Press OK.
Method #2
1. This way is just as easy, go to Control Panel -> Windows Defender, or if it’s running in the tray under Vista, simply double click on the tray icon.
2. Click on Tools and then go to Options.
3a. In Windows Vista scroll right to the bottom of the window and you’ll see an option “Use Windows Defender” under Administrator options. Simply uncheck “Use Windows Defender” and click Save, Defender will now be turned off.
3b. Defender is laid out slightly differently in Windows 7. In the Options window, click on Administrator down the left and then uncheck “Use this program” and click Save.
Removing the Startup Entry
If you stop and disable Vista’s Windows Defender from Services and do not disable the Windows Defender tray program (MSASCui.exe) from starting with Windows, you’ll likely get the following error message:
Application failed to initialized: 0x800106ba. A problem caused this program’s service to stop. To start the service, restart your computer or search Help and Support for how to start a service manually.
1. Click Start and type msconfig into the search box.
2. Go to the Startup tab and uncheck Windows Defender displayed in the Startup Item column. Click OK and at the restart box check “Don’t show this message again” and then click “Exit without restart”.
Of course, there are many other tools around that can disable Windows startup entries such as CCleaner which you can use instead if you wish.
Disabling Windows Defender in Windows 8
As we mentioned above, Windows 8 Defender is now pretty much the full Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus software under the Defender name. It can also be disabled using two methods which are basically the same as for Windows Vista and 7. The first method of disabling the Windows Defender service is exactly the same as Method #1 above, the second is slightly different because of the MSE looking interface.
1. Go to Control Panel -> Windows Defender or click on the Start Screen -> right click -> All Apps -> Windows Defender.
2. Click on the Settings tab -> click Administrator on the left, and then uncheck the “Turn on Windows Defender” box and save the changes.
Completely Uninstalling Windows Defender
For most users, simply turning off Windows Defender or disabling it via the Services Control Panel should be enough to stop it running. If for whatever reason you’re still having some sort of issue or are determined to remove Defender completely from the system, unfortunately is isn’t possible using Programs and Features or the Turn Windows features on or off window.
Although there is no official way to cleanly uninstall Defender, it is possible to remove the service, Control Panel entry, other related registry entries and all the files and folders manually so Defender is unofficially removed from the system. This does present its own set of problems though as the registry keys, files and folders are all protected with enhanced permissions and you have to take ownership of them all. Also, once removed, you can’t re-install Defender again because it isn’t a separate package.
As there seems to be no tool around to do it for you, we’ve decided to create our own little utility that can delete all the necessary protected registry keys, files and folders at the click of a button. Currently the program works great on Windows Vista and 7’s Defender but does not work and shouldn’t be used on Windows 8, we may include full Windows 8 Defender support in future if people request it.
Simply download the portable Windows Defender Uninstaller and run it, then click the button to uninstall Defender. The lower pane will show what’s being deleted and if there are any errors. For best results, it’s best to disable Defender beforehand using one of the methods above. Please use this tool at your own risk as once Defender has been removed, it cannot easily be re-installed, make sure you have backups to hand in case you change your mind later on.
Manually Removing Defender
For the more experienced, removing the Windows Defender service, files, folders and Control Panel entry can be done manually, but as they’re all protected, you need to know how to delete a protected registry key and how to take ownership of folders with a tool like WinOwnership or the Take Ownership context menu.
1. Open a command Prompt and type the following to stop and then delete the Defender service:
sc stop windefend
sc delete windefend
2. Next you need to grant full permissions to and delete the following registry key so the Defender Control Panel entry can be deleted:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorer
ControlPanelNameSpace{D8559EB9-20C0-410E-BEDA-7ED416AECC2A}
3. Also grant full permission and delete the Defender program registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows Defender
4. Now take ownership of and delete the following folders:
C:Program FilesWindows Defender
C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindows Defender
C:Program Files (x86)Windows Defender (for 64-bit users only)
After that is done, Defender should now be removed. Windows may complain that Defender is turned off but this will disappear after a reboot or you can go into Action Center and tell it not to monitor your anti spyware software.
Of course we don’t recommend disabling or uninstalling Windows Defender for the sake of it, especially if it’s causing you no issues or there is no specific need to do so. Disabling Windows Defender will leave your computer unprotected from spyware and other malware, so you obviously need to make sure you have another anti spyware program or security package to replace it.
You might also like:
Disable Third Party Services and Programs for a Clean Boot in WindowsDisable Automatic Updates for Chrome, Firefox, Flash, Adobe Reader and WindowsSolutions to Taskbar Hangs or Freezes in WindowsDisable AutoRun on CD/DVD Drives in Windows for Better SecurityUninstall Programs Packaged with Windows Installer (MSI) in Safe ModeOk, ok, this is old news. When I try to extract the .exe file, an archive password is asked for. What is it? Thanks
ReplyThe password is on the download page.
Replyany idea how to completely remove defender from win10?
ReplyIt’s baked into Windows 8 and 10 so tight it’s almost impossible to remove Defender completely
ReplyDouble boot and then delete it from there is all I have found for me that works 100%.
ReplyBy far, Method 1 was the most simple and effective answer. I’ve been chasing this all day. Will definitely check back in the future, because it is a computer and you know it is going to be a problem with one thing or another. Thanks!
Replythe only reason Microsoft wasn’t allow you to remove permanently Windows Defender is :
all client machines around the Earth in Internet they ping to search updates and they updating actual ip in an database,when that database resides on Microsoft and available for National Security Agency (nsa) -and all others suckers- that ip database will allow them to activate an global windows server based micro servers (some stuff they learn from Kevin Mitnick ) and the same stuff they are using for Bitcoin server of client’s local servers with or without miners.
so will be pretty nice if this Windows Defender network will remain powerful without someone like you guys needs an ownership or to make confusion to believe you own what you buy !!!!
good luck ! say hello Billy !
Defender in Win 10 started reporting a serious malware and said it was removing it, over and over.
I restored back a month and still same problem. I then installed McAfee and it disabled Defender. I ran a full system scan with McAfee and my system was clean. I think Defender was corrupted.
I still have a problem with microphone being disabled after 1 minute.
ReplyI’m trying a system recovery back to an old point but I get an error message that it’s not working due to the antivirus software. I only have windows defender. Is there a way to turn it off from the command prompt (windows 10 won’t boot)?
ReplyRemoving Defender is pointless.
I managed it, by brutally deleting Defender folder, however I can bet, that after next major update it will be back the way all unchecked telemetry setting was back after TH2 update.
AS TH2 is Windows 10 it would stand to reason Defender comes back, the same with Windows 8 because Defender is baked right into the operating system. The files are probably treated as system files and once they are designated missing, will be put back.
ReplyThere are very good reasons for removing Windows Defender, namely and most notably due to it’s often incompatibility with other vendor security software and/or the fact that it likes to act up at random whenever both it and other security software you’ve installed attempt to secure the system and analyze data. This has often manifested itself in the form of many frustrating error messages and relentless pop-ups from Windows Defender because it doesn’t always know how to react to your normal usage of your machine.
These problems with Windows Defender have been well documented and continue to persist despite user-outcry to ‘Monster-soft’ about yet another ridiculous and detestable and pointless appendage to the Windows Operating System. Much like those stupid, clunky-looking, security shield over-lays which cover all your icons when you invoke Administrator privileges with UAC fully functioning. These particular features are simply not necessary for the majority of us whom know how to navigate Windows and would much rather implement our own security policies and software.
And don’t let anyone naysayer fool you because those security shield overlays can most certainly be removed and prevented from popping up over your icons again by using any one of the several already published methods for doing so. My favorite method for disabling the security-shield overlays is as follows:
Kill the Explorer.exe process by clicking on Start button > Hold down Ctrl+Shift & Right Click on empty area in the Start Menu > Click “Exit Explorer”.
Click Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys and open Task Manager.
Click File > New Task > then type [cmd.exe] and click OK. This will open the command prompt.
Type del /AH “%localappdata%iconcache.db”
Press [ENTER]
Type explorer.exe
Press [ENTER]
That’s it! No more security shields, just nice clean looking icons for your viewing pleasure.
ReplyI disabled Windows Defender because it kept trying to put an automatic update that has been completely crashing people’s computers and cannot be removed on my system. I also have Malwarebytes. I don’t trust the update and have hidden it several times but Windows Defender kept unhiding it. I turned it off and it stayed off about a month and came back on by itself. So I disabled it again today. Hopefully it DOES NOT enable itself again at all.
ReplyNever try to uninstall/remove WinDefender from W8.1/10. The program is deeply integrated into Windows, its elimination will result in an impressive series of system failures from Win Update to other key components of Windows. You’ll have to format.
ReplyYeap, manually removed every line from the registry that had name defender in it, and deleted it from Program files and Program data and after restart System went bananas. I suspected that Defender rather defends against doing some modifications in the Windows, and obviously this is the case. IMO, Defender primarily Defends System from certain security and privacy modifications. Unfortunately I am not a programmer, but I believe that some good one could cut out this crap from the System. It’s easy to disable it, but removal resembles fighting with terrorists.
ReplyThanks!
Is there a silent option for this or would it be easy for you to add it?
If not, could you publish the source? Thank you!
So… it has been years… where is the 8.1 uninstaller?
ReplyWe never made it for a few reasons, firstly because only a couple of people asked for it over a period of around 2 years, and more importantly, it’s incredibly difficult bordering on impossible to remove 100% from Windows 8/8.1.
ReplyJust so you know. I downloaded the uninstaller for Windows Defender, but it still shows up in the windows task manager under processes and is still taking up a lot of my physical memory.
Replyhow about a tool to completely remove customer experience program and other unwanted stuff. windows 7, 8, and now 10 seriously need some ms-malware cleanup
ReplyMany people would agree with you, sadly a lot of that stuff is woven tightly into Windows and will likely be almost impossible to remove safely.
ReplyThis article urgently needs an update. On Windows 10 prerelease I turned off Windows Defender manually inthe control panel (MsAscUi.exe) and the next time I boot Windows it is ON again! This sucks incredibly.
Turn Off Windows Defender Vista Home Premium
I finally found a way to turn it off permanently. I found this on my own, you will not find this trick in Google. I’m the first to discover this. BUT afterwards I was not able to turn it on again. So do this trick only if you are sure that you will never use it again.
All the heart of Windows Defender is MsMpEng.exe which is the service. You can’t stop it, You can’t kill it.
But I found a very strange thing: At least on the Windows 10 prerelease I could change the Registry Key that defines how the service starts with a simple Admin user:
Set in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetServicesWinDefend
the entry “Start” to the value 4 which means “disabled”.
Then restart Windows.
The service will not run anymore and you will find NO way to turn it back on!
The really weird thing is that after turning off Windows Defender I cannot write the same registry value back that was there before I changed the value. Really very very strange. Probably this is a bug. At least it is a huge security hole.
There is a new virus running around AntiAdBlocker that is circumventing all known anti-malware and anti-virus programs. It is not an independent program that you can go to the Install/Uninstall area under Control Panel and everything registers as clean. It cleverly implants itself in Windows Defender, which Windows does not allow you to delete or remove, and makes itself appear as a Windows Defender update, not an install.
As worthless as Windows Defender is, it is now harming my computer even though I’ve had it turned off and I’m using free programs twice as powerful. Windows’ stupidity at its finest.
ReplyThanks a million. Manual deletion on Win 8.1 was not bad. Taking file ownership was easy on one machine and tough on another pc. I have an ACER V3 with SS “C” drive that is full, so deleting unused programs/files is important to me. Windows Defender was just a disturbance and more so when I could not delete the files. Hurray! Gone into the electronic dustbin.
ReplyWin Patrol will remove Windows Defender from starting
ReplyMicrosoft is a joke and I for one will decide for myself what i will and won’t run on my machine and its not like microsoft is not connected to the NSA or anything like that.
Also watch OneDrive because thats not so easy to remove
ReplyDoes this work with Windows 10? With build 9879, it seems Windows Defender is turned on automatically and there is no way to stop or remove it.
ReplyThe uninstall tool doesn’t work with Windows 8 or 10, Defender’s far more buried into the operating system than it is in Windows Vista/7, that makes it extremely difficult to try and remove.
ReplyDoes anyone know a parameter to get this to work silently?
I have tried to deconstruct but am having trouble amending the permissions on one of the keys.
Thanks! I’ve incorporated some of your stuff into a larger script which I’m using to remove Kaspersky from customer environments as we’re trying to replace it with a different security solution. Seems Defender kept blocking us even when we had Enterprise/Domain Admin credentials. Now with this little trick at the start of our scripts…we don’t have any problems. Thanks again!
ReplyI tried it on Windows 7and it was great but on Windows 8.1, I keep getting explorer.exe errors occasionally. Now I have to format :( Please create an Uninstaller targeted for Windows 8.1.
PS: After running the uninstaller in Windows 8, if you search for “Defender” you still find a myriad of entires for Windows Defender. I deleted those manually but that still created this error
ReplySorry if it wasn’t quite clear, the Uninstall Defender tool shouldn’t be used in Windows 8/8.1 as we just couldn’t get it working properly. Defender is more woven into 8 and seems to be far harder to remove completely.
ReplyHi,
Can you make a Windows Defender Uninstaller for Windows 8.1?
Thanks,
ReplyThank You to you all! You are my life saver…lol That windows defender error message was driving me crazy! Does anyone know why it does that in the 1st place?
ReplyYou rock! Thanks so much!
Turn Off Windows Defender Vista
Replythanks for info, so far so good
ReplyThanks :)
ReplyThanks man, you fixed my problems with my windows defender.
ReplyLeave a Reply
Since Vista,Windows Defender is included with Windows . It’s a small piece of software that runs in the background to help protect ,your computer from malware (malicious software) like viruses, spyware, and other potentially unwanted software. Some spyware protection is better than none, and it’s built in and free! But… if you are already running something that provides great anti-malware protection, defender will probably wasting precious resources , there’s no need to have more than one application running at a time.
The problem with all Defender versions in Windows Vista and above is it’s integrated into the operating system and installs by default with no visible or hidden option to uninstall. Many people are looking for ways to disable or remove it from their system as they prefer to use other software , for example on Windows 8 and 10 you cannot turn off Windows Defender completely anymore , A click on Settings in Windows Defender opens the control panel for the program in the new Windows Settings application. You can turn the program’s real-time protection off temporarily, but if it’s off for a while Windows will turn it back on automatically. It is unclear why Microsoft made the decision to change the behavior of Windows Defender in this regard. What is certain however is that it will annoy users who want to disable it permanently on the computer they are working on. Defender Control is a small Portable freeware which will allow you to disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 completely.
Defender Control v1.6 – What’s New – (Monday , 16. December 2019)
How To Disable Windows Defender In Vista
1. [Fixed] – False Positive Issue (Some code improvements for the False Positive Issue)
2. [Added] – A unique security code for the defender disable cmd command
3. [Added] – About screen
Why should you use it :
1. During copying big data from Pc to Usb or vice versa , disabling defender can decrease the Total Copy time
2. Users may experiencing conflicts between Defender and their antivirus application
3. Some antivirus programs ask the user to manually turn off or disable Windows Defender in Windows 10 …
4. If you’ve got it enabled, chances are Windows Defender will start each time you boot your PC . If you’re short on resources, have your own methods of dealing with spyware or have simply come to the conclusion that Windows Defender is not for you then you might want to disable it.
How to use Defender control:
Download Defender control and unzip it then run the program , you can see your Windows defender status on the Program interface :
1. Green – Windows defender is running
2. Red – Windows defender is turned off
3. Orange – Entweder Windows defender can not be started oder Real-Time protection is turned off
To Disable – Enable Windows defender please click the appropriate button , you can also Launch Windows defender or Windows defender settings (Under the menu button) with one click. Defender Control has CMD (command line) support. The screenshot below shows the available parameters
NOTE: If Windows defender “Tamper Protection” is turned on , Defender Control requires the TrustedInstaller service to bypass protection and turn off the defender. Therefore If there is a problem with the TrustedInstaller service, Defender Control Application may not work prorely.Sometimes program may need to wait 3-5 second to turn windows defender on or Off and you may see the Orange interface during this period.
NOTE:Defender control , shuts down the defender ,Therefore ; There may be false positives on Virustotal.If you use the program continuously please use Defender injector to add “Defender control” to white list.
Supported languages: English , Turkish , German , Russian , French , Korean , Chinese (Traditional) , Chinese (Simplified) , Italian , Slovenian , Japanese , Polish , Bulgarian , Spanish , Arabic , Czech , Thai , Hungarian , Swedish , Greek , Portuguese (Brazilian) , Hebrew , Vietnamese , Persian , Romanian , Thai , Finnish , Dutch (Nederlands), Ukrainian , Dutch (Dutch), Serbian , Estonian , Azerbaijani , Lithuanian , Uzbek , Tajik , Latvian
Supported Operating Systems: Windows 10 , Windows 8.1 , Windows 8 , Windows 7 , Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit).
How To Disable Windows Defender In Vista
File: DefenderControl.exe
MD5 : 3a24a7b7c1ba74a5afa50f88ba81d550
SHA1: 5da4de1dbba55774891497297396fd2e5c306cf5
SHA256: a201f7f81277e28c0bdd680427b979aee70e42e8a98c67f11e7c83d02f8fe7ae